Venomous king cobra 'Houdini' escapes, shuts down most of zoo in Sweden

Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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A zoo in Sweden is partially closed after a highly venomous snake escaped its enclosure just days after arriving at its new home.

A king cobra named Sir Vass (Sir Hiss in English) arrived at the Skansen Aquarium in Stockholm last week, the zoo posted on Facebook Oct. 25.

After his Saturday escape, zoo staff dubbed the sneaky serpent "Houdini."

As the unfamiliar snake explored its new terrarium, zoo officials said, it found an escape route in the ceiling of the cobra enclosure, where a heat lamp used to be. The heat of the light bulb kept the last snake housed there, the zoo reported, but the lamp was recently replaced with a cooler LED light bulb.

"Since Houdini is of the curious type, he would go up and look there of course and managed to push himself out that way," the zoo posted.

After a visitor filmed the snake squeezing itself out the ceiling in a video shared by Sharjah24 News, zoo officials said the staff set off the fire alarm and vacated the area.

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A King Cobra stares at the camera from behind the glass. Wild Florida is located about an hour west of Melbourne near Kenansville, in Osceola County. The attraction includes alligators, animals from Florida and other parts of the world, airboat rides, and an 85 acre two-mile drive-thru safari park.
A King Cobra stares at the camera from behind the glass. Wild Florida is located about an hour west of Melbourne near Kenansville, in Osceola County. The attraction includes alligators, animals from Florida and other parts of the world, airboat rides, and an 85 acre two-mile drive-thru safari park.

Serpent likely seeking warm space

Because the king cobra is a tropical animal, the zoo said, the snake will not seek the cold outside the zoo, so it will likely return home to its warm enclosure.

Zoo officials reported they have "a good idea in what space the snake is," and they do not believe it's able to escape the aquarium area portion of the zoo.

Until Houdini is found, the zoo reported it will have its entrance, its shop and its monkey house – a different building from the one the snake is housed in, open during regular hours.

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According to the zoo website, it's home to about 200 exotic species including fish, corals, crocodiles, turtles, lizards, snakes, naked mole-rats, marmosets, golden lion tamarins, baboons, lemurs, spiders and parrots.

Zoo officials reported staff continued to search for the snake and "hope to find the snake soon."

The Skansen-Akvariet zoo is pictured in Stockholm on October 24, 2020. - A Swedish zoo has been partially shut down after a king cobra staged an impressive escape from its enclosure at the weekend, with staff on Monday still searching for the venomous snake. (Photo by Henrik MONTGOMERY / various sources / AFP) / Sweden OUT (Photo by HENRIK MONTGOMERY/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images) ORIG FILE ID: AFP_32M26WT.jpg

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealun

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: King cobra snake 'Houdini' escapes Swedish zoo through ceiling